1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to an image capturing apparatus and a method thereof, and more particularly to an image capturing apparatus for compressing a preview image in a preview mode to judge an image complexity and calculate a preview compressed setting value in advance, and an image capturing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration showing a first conventional image capturing apparatus 10 in a capturing mode. Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional image capturing apparatus 10 includes an image sensing unit 110, an image processing unit 120, an image storing unit 130, an image compressing unit 140 and a control unit 150. When the conventional image capturing apparatus 10 enters a capturing mode, the image sensing unit 110 captures a to-be-captured image S1 and outputs a to-be-captured image signal S2 according to the to-be-captured image S1. The image processing unit 120 processes the to-be-captured image signal S2 to output to-be-captured image data S3, which is stored in the image storing unit 130 in the capturing mode. The control unit 150 controls the image compressing unit 140 to compress the to-be-captured image data S3 to make the image compressing unit 140 output a compressed image S4. The control unit 150 outputs a compressed setting value S5 according to the compressed image S4 and judges whether the compressed image S4 reaches a predetermined target or not. If not, the image compressing unit 140 compresses the to-be-captured image data S3 again according to the compressed setting value S5 until the compressed image S4 reaches the predetermined target.
FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration showing a second conventional image capturing apparatus in the capturing mode. As shown in FIG. 2, the image storing unit 130 may also store the to-be-captured image signal S2 outputted from the image sensing unit 110. The image processing unit 120 processes the to-be-captured image signal S2 in the image storing unit 130 to output the to-be-captured image data S3. Then, the control unit 150 controls the image compressing unit 140 to compress the to-be-captured image data S3 into the predetermined target.
However, the conventional image capturing apparatus cannot compress the to-be-captured image data until it enters the capturing mode. Thus, the conventional image capturing apparatus needs a longer period of time to compress the to-be-captured image data into the predetermined target.